Things Fall Apart: An Analysis :: essays research papers

Things Fall Apart An AnalysisThe culture of the Umuofia society before the colonial infiltration, may behard to understand but we are oblige by Achebe to realize it has traditions andcustoms that make it work. Although, looking at it from our Judaeo-Christianpoint of view we may be appalled by some of their practices. We also live with torealize that they have strengths.Things Fall apart is the idea of balance and interdependence, earth and sky,individual and community, man and woman or different perspectives on the samesituation. The important image of this balance is contained in the Ibo concept of"chi," which occurs throughout the novel. A persons "chi" is their destiny, hisinner self, "you wouldnt challenge your "chi" to a wrestling match," as didOkonkwo when he aided in the killing of Ikemefuna, whom he loved and whocalled him father. Okonkwo sins not only against the earth goddess, protectorof family relations, but also against his inner mos t feelings or his "chi." Any badness luck that occurs, people of this culture would say that you have a bad"chi."Okonkwos destiny is marked by bad luck, one reason may be that he is sodriven by the fear of resembling his father that he struggles to repress part ofhis personality with predictably afflicted results.This was a society where a man was judged by his own achievement and notthat of his fathers. Yams were the primary crop of Umuofia. A sign ofmanliness was if you could farm yams to feed your family. Okonkwo is respectedbecause of his hard work.The multifactorial patterns of Umuofias economic and social customs materializethroughout this novel as we see Okonkwo compelled to rid himself of anysimilarities that his father had. Unoka had no titles, was lazy and when he diedwas greatly in debt.Some may wonder how a society like the Ibos functioned, how they enforce